Question reference: S4W-27335
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 4 September 2015
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Current status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 17 September 2015
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to address (a) increasing numbers of and (b) increasingly dangerous seagulls.
Answer
Although regular seabird censuses include species that are particularly problematic in urban environments (herring and lesser black-backed gull), there has only been a single inland gull nesting survey in 2000. Results suggest that approximately 1% of herring gulls nest inland while 22% of lesser black-blacked gulls nest inland. These data represent a baseline figure against which changes in the size of the urban nesting gull population can be assessed when the survey is repeated. This is planned for 2016. At this stage therefore we do not yet have factual evidence about changes to the urban gull nesting population.
It is the responsibility of local authorities to address problems caused by urban gulls. People may interpret the dive bombing and harassment by gulls as exhibiting dangerous behaviour. This behaviour is most commonly associated with the hatching of gull chicks at roof nesting sites where the adult birds are attempting to protect their chicks from potential predators such as man.
Local authorities can help to minimise this behaviour by preventing the eggs from hatching, either by egg and nest removal, or by egg oiling, or by egg replacement with artificial dummy eggs as carried out by Dumfries and Galloway Council. Where necessary, these actions are licensed under Scottish Natural Heritage Licence No. 3/2015, which authorises the killing and taking of certain species of gulls for the purpose of preserving public health and safety and for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease.
The use of falcons is discussed in the Dumfries gull report Use of Falcons to Displace Nesting Gulls from an Urban Area which was a report commissioned by the Scottish Government and was published on 14 April 2010. The report is available at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/04/14160323/0
It is hoped that local authorities across Scotland will be able to implement the recommendations in this report, and learn from measures deployed by Dumfries and Galloway Council, to help reduce this problem across Scotland.